Movies

Refresh for latest…: Busy weekend at the international box office with a strong scary new entry, some unexpected spark in holds and a milestone for a long-running franchise. Out of the gate this frame, Sony/Screen Gems/Stage 6 Films/Blumhouse’s Insidious: The Red Door knocked out the biggest overseas horror debut since 2019. With $31.4M from 52

Sony Pictures has set a Feb. 9, 2024 theatrical release for the Wayfarer Studios’ Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us. Pic starring Blake Lively and directed by Justin Baldoni is a feature take on Hoover’s best-selling novel. Logline: Though coming from a complicated past, Lily Bloom (Lively) has always known the life she wants. While

A sci-fi comedy by Mel Eslyn and a literary noir by Alice Troughton – who are, respectively, the longtime producer for the Duplass brothers, and an award-winning UK television director (Dr. Who, Cucumber, The Living And The Dead) — debut in limited release this weekend, alongside Adele Lim’s Joy Ride, a Lionsgate wide-release – marking

Sony/Stage 6 Films/Blumhouse’s fifthquel Insidious: The Red Door nearly locked out Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny yesterday at the box office. The Patrick Wilson starring and directed PG-13 horror film scared up $5M in previews at 2,806 locations that began showtimes at 4PM. That amount of money is very close to what Indy

We can knock Disney all we want over less-than stellar post-Covid results on Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm titles, but the fact of the matter is the brands are still delivering, making the theatrical motion picture studio the continued box office leader with $3.4 billion worldwide for the period of Jan. 1-July 2. That breaks out

UPDATE, 2:20PM: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny officially wins Tuesday with $11.698M over Sound of Freedom‘s reported $11.5M. Monday revised on Dial of Destiny was $11.7M, which means business was even on July 4th; and that’s solid for any tentpole on that holiday. 5-day on Dial of Destiny is $83.7M. PREVIOUS: Angels

Back To The Future: The Musical landed on Broadway last week in overdrive: The stage adaptation starring Casey Likes and Roger Bart scored a dizzying $1,035,256 for just four preview performances, filling 98% of seats at the Winter Garden. The musical, which opens August 3, features a book by Bob Gale and new music and

UPDATED EXCLUSIVE: Angel Studios’ thriller Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviezel has seen its presales spike to $10 million. This is before the pic’s opening on July 4 in north of 2,600 locations. Many rivals are tracking this semi-faith-based, based-on-a-true-story title about about former Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard, who took rescuing abducted children around

EXCLUSIVE: Exhibition marketing firm PaperAirplane Media, which has been a crossways for movie theaters and studios since launching during the pandemic in August 2020, has reached a milestone in its digital asset download portal, The Hanger, with 500K studio marketing assets downloaded. Lionsgate vets Mike Polydoros and Will Preuss saw an opportunity and a need

Refresh for chart…On the bright side for Independence Day bomb Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, its first five days at the box office of $82M aren’t as bad as Paramount/Skydance’s Terminator Genisys. That sequel’s launch just prior to July 4, 2015 left a lot of methane in the air with $42.4M in its

We’ve had a couple of tentpole missteps here this summer, read Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny this weekend with $60M, The Flash and Elemental; putting the running summer box office at $1.88 billion for May 1-July 2. That’s close to -2% off from the $1.91 billion reached over the same frame last year.

As Regal parent Cineworld prepares to exit Chapter 11 this month, rumors are heating up over who will emerge as the giant theater chain’s new chief executive, with reports Monday pointing to Eduardo Acuna of Cinepolis. Longtime Cineworld CEO Moody Greidinger has a consulting contract during a transition period but isn’t likely to stay in

Vietnam has banned commercial screenings of Warner Bros’ Barbie due to a scene that depicts a map of the South China Sea with the “nine-dash line” that is contested by the Vietnamese government.  The film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was scheduled for release in Vietnam on July 21. 

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is off to a disappointing start with a $130M global opening. Of that, $70M is from 52 international box office markets as the the fifth installment in the beloved 42-year-old franchise came in below projections. Anthony has run down the reasons behind the domestic

Fans of The Name of The Rose author Umberto Eco turned out in NYC, boosting the documentary on medieval scholar turned novelist and social commentator to over $9.1k on one screen – a nice showing by The Cinema Guild for a foreign language documentary on a solid weekend for some indie and arthouse fare. Umberto

A trio of docs and a wider-than-usual run for a Vertical thriller populate a specialty weekend with fewer new openings as theaters stick with Asteroid City and devote screens to Indiana Jones and Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Call it jittery Friday as the indie community like the rest of Hollywood awaits news from SAG-AFTRA as

The fatal shooting of a 17-year-old by a police officer in Nanterre, France earlier this week has set off a swath of nationwide riots and violence, resulting in early closures of some cinemas, curfews in certain cities and a plea for calm from the national football team, among more widespread issues. The killing of the

SATURDAY AM: Refresh for chart…and more analysis Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is still bound to open at the bottom of end of tracking’s projection of $60M as this morning. I saw an estimate in The Flash vicinity of $55M last night and took an Alka Seltzer out of shock. Hopefully Dial

EXCLUSIVE: We all know post-pandemic that tentpoles work at the box office, but it’s been hit and miss for everything else, especially indies movies. From out of nowhere, Angel Studios’ Sound of Freedom movie about Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security agent who left the department after he was frustrated with the U.S. rescue efforts

The National Association of Theatre Owners VP & Chief Communications Officer Patrick Corcoran is departing after 24-plus years. The news comes in the wake of NATO CEO and President John Fithian retiring after a 24-year run at the exhibition trade org. Together with Fithian, Corcoran, known for being a straight-shooter with the press, has had

EXCLUSIVE: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is posting an estimated $6 million-$7.5 million Thursday night, per sources, which is where previous older-skewing action-guy comps live. We’re specifically referencing the Thursday night starts of No Time to Die, which grossed $6.3M (started at 4 p.m.) before its $55.2M opening weekend in October 2021,

It is quite conceivable another near $200M weekend will be in store at the box office over the weekend of July 21-21. Warner Bros.’ highly anticipated comedic feature take on girl toy Barbie starring Margot Robbie in the title role and Ryan Goslin as Ken cruised on to tracking today and hot would be a

After taking domestic to William Oldroyd’s thriller Eileen out of Sundance, NEON has set a December theatrical release for the pic. Eileen will go Dec. 1 in NY and LA before going wide on Dec. 8. The movie starring Oscar winner Anne Hathaway is based on the 2015 debut novel by Otessa Moshfegh. It’s set

A bankruptcy court judge today gave a green light to a reorganization plan for Regal parent Cineworld, the key step needed for the giant movie theater chain to emerge from bankruptcy next month. At a hearing, in an order from the bench, Judge Marvin Isgur of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas

Broadway continued on its post-Tony glow last week, with the 32 productions grossing $34,004,232, about 3% more than the previous week and 10% over the same week last season. In all, attendance for the week ending June 25 was 270,206, 4% higher than the previous week and 18% over last year. This year’s Tony winners

Big cinema advertising platform National CineMedia said today its plan of reorganization has been confirmed by a judge in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.  The company filed for Chapter 11 in April. It now expects to emerge in August or September. The plan allows the company to eliminate debt and

Facing the worst reviews ever for an Indiana Jones movie, the Lucasfilm franchise finale, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is hoping to gain traction with audiences and best its $60M-$65M domestic start, $140M global opening. If the post pandemic has proved anything, it’s that popcorn pics aren’t so beholden to the Rotten Tomatoes

Focus Features expanded Asteroid City to the highest grossing weekend for a Wes Anderson Film with a projected three-day estimate of $9 million from 1,675 theaters – no. 6 at the domestic box office — pushing the film’s cume to $10.2 million. It opened last weekend in six locations. Some 64% of moviegoers were 35 or younger. Males topped

Cineworld said on Monday that as part of its proposed restructuring following Chapter 11, it expects to file for administration of its listed entity Cineworld plc in the UK but that its operating companies will continue business as usual without interruption. Administration in the UK is an insolvency process, similar to a bankruptcy process. The world’s second biggest

Refresh for latest...: After two major studio movies bowed last weekend, this session was one of holdovers for Hollywood with mixed results. Last weekend’s leader, The Flash, which had initially come in lower than projections, added $26.6M in 78 offshore markets this weekend, dropping by 59%.The Warner Bros/DC deep universe title now counts an international